This invention relates to spray aerator devices for attachment to faucets, and particularly of the type that can be manually operated to either an aeration mode or a spray mode. In the former instance, an aerated stream of water is delivered from the spray aerator; in the latter instance, a non-aerated spray is delivered from the spray aerator.
Spray aerator devices generally are well-known, and commonly have various problems of manufacture, assembly and/or operation associated therewith. Such devices may require the molding of intricate shapes of plastic parts and excessive numbers of such parts, thereby increasing the cost of manufacture and requiring excessive assembly operations. In particular, such devices usually require the use of threaded interconnections between various parts, screws and/or other elaborate fastening means which also increase the cost of manufacture and assembly, the time required for assembly, and require exact axial alignment of threaded parts to obtain proper assembly. Representative of prior art spray aerators are the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,989,249; 2,990,122; 3,286,935; 3,334,818; 3,520,481; 3,524,591; 3,623,670; 3,680,791; 3,682,392; 3,706,418 3,722,798; 3,768,735; 3,786,995; 3,884,418; 3,902,671; 4,221,337; and 4,221,338.